Delay

Sorry there haven't been any new updates lately. I've been staying on friends couches (without internet/computer) in the city for the past few days. Once I'm back in Lake Oswego I'll catch all of you up on everything. Plus I have some new pictures.

WARNING: This Post Will Be Long, Pictureless, and Adventure-Filled

Dear Readers,

It's been a long time since my last post. I've got a lot to catch up on and no longer have access to a digital camera (as of now).

Last Sunday/Monday morning: Showed up to Elizabeth's (Taylor's girlfriend) bday around 9pm. Lots of people in the 30's and Miller High Life and Jameson. Taylor took over the grill and made some delicious burgers, which were accompanied with corn, potatoes w/bacon, and salad; all delicious. Some people left, new ones took their place, and finally the remainder decided to go to this guys apartment to use his pool. The place was in the French Quarter, relatively close to the Three Legged Dog. Beautiful wood paneling and decor to match filled the rooms from wall to wall. Much fun and splashing was had in the pool. Too much splashing led to the EMS being called but in the end everyone was fine. I left shortly afterward, around 8:30am and never saw any of them again. Except Taylor of course.

Late Wednesday: My parents and little brother arrived in town for a visit. The next few days consisted of: lots of good food, being an unlicensed tour guide, a family-filled trip to the aquarium, beignets, and a few ever depressing strolls down Bourbon st. This is also when Amanda and I started watching the first season of Twin Peaks. So wonderful <3

Saturday night: After showing my parents Frenchmen Ave., them being relatively unamused, and their departure I happened upon 3 girls: Sarah, Ruby, and Luna. We immediately become friends and I tagged along with them for the rest of the evening. We met many people, drank cheap convenient store alcohol, and some bought certain homemade cookies from a very friendly man who looked about our age. After showing them around my house one of them suggested that we go to a dance party at a local bar. Little did they know that this happened to be Bounce Night at St. Roch. I was very excited when I learned this and danced the night away yet again. I also happened upon 2 other Zac(k)(h)'s and we all discussed the joys of being named after Zadkiel (one of the first 3 angels ever created; the angel of omnipresence.)

Monday: My last day in New Orleans :''''[ Spent the morning with my family and Amanda, eating and saying goodbyes. (See you in a month guys!!) Afterward we went clothes shopping at a couple of hip places on Magazine St. in Uptown. Around the evening we picked up my friend Sarah from a few nights before and we all watched Dead Man, my favorite movie of all time. After the movie and Sarah's departure Amanda, Andy (one of my housemates) and I went to Flanagan's to pay our respects to the end of my New Orleanian voyage and to give my regards to my favorite bar tender, Huggy. Andy left early but Amanda and I stayed till 4am; just enough time to watch the season finale of Twin Peaks season 1, take a shot of The Kraken, and head to the airport.
To New Orleans: You are the most friendly, accommodating, and (second) dirtiest city I have ever been to. I made so many good friends in you that I'll definitely keep in contact and had some wild and unforgettable adventures. I'm sure I'll see you again in the future cause baby, I know you'll treat me right.

Monday: Slept off all the alcohol on the plane ride and arrived in Portland, OR, land of bikes and white people, around 11am Pacific time. I'm not staying in Portland proper but rather an outlying (ultra-white, even for Portland standards) suburb of the city called Lake Oswego. Not much happened this first day. I settled in, helped my uncle move some floor panels, saw a little of downtown with my cousin Kristina, and had dinner with family (Tom (uncle), Kristina (cousin), and Kaitlin (cousin)) and 2 of Kaitlin's friends.

Tuesday: Finally, I've arrived at today. Which was a blast by the way. I woke up around 11:30am (after not sleeping any the night before), watched the first episode of Twin Peaks season 2 (I'm obsessed with it now), and gave Molly's friend Becca a call. My good friend Molly went to high school with this girl in LA, California and recommended her as a future friend. She was certainly right. Fate possibly working in my favor, it just so happens that she had decided to take the day off of work and had no plans. Becca was wonderfully friendly and even offered to come pick me up at my house. A student at Reed, she's lived in the city for a couple of years now. Incredibly intelligent, engaging, and pretty we clicked right away. We first went downtown to the famous VooDoo donuts and had 2 sugary sensations called The Old Dirty Bastard and The Laura Palmer (yes, named after the murdered girl from Twin Peaks!!) She showed me around her campus, took me to get coffee, showed me an amazing vintage store, and chose a ring of food carts for dinner. I was too busy having non-stop conversations with my new friend to particularly care where we were headed but all of our stops were worth while. Having to work early the next morning she dropped me back at my house around 8:30 and promised to give me a call this weekend to hang out yet again.
Now I just have to find new friends and new ways to occupy my time during the rest of the week. Tomorrow I'm going into the city solo. There's a Run DMT show tomorrow night so maybe I'll be able to meet some new people there.

ATTENTION Mailers

Anything mailed after tomorrow, June 5th, should probably be addressed to my Oregon residence. Just to be safe.

1714 Greentree Road
Lake Oswego, OR 97034

Plants, Animals, and Sicilian Drug Dealers

Wednesday evening I just happened to stumble upon an excepted event. The Chapel Hill based band Lost in the Trees was on tour with Plants and Animals and the both of them just happened to be playing that night at One Eyed Jack's. I didn't have any specific plans so I decided to go. Both bands had rather different sounds; Lost in the Trees being more singer/songwritery accompanied with a team of many stringed instruments, tuba, accordion, and xylophone, while Plants and Animals was more traditionally rocky with some obvious Jam elements. Someone in that band was probably a big fan of Phish. They were all really nice people and I talked to some of the guys in Lost in the Trees about hailing from NC for awhile. Most of the people in the audience seemed to have come with their significant others and were being lost in their own coupley worlds but I managed to make some friends/get digits with a couple of girls and their soft spoken male companion. So now that Amanda is working the night shift (11pm-7am) I have a few more friends to show me about the night life. I think they were from Uptown, so maybe I'll get to find out what secrets that part of town holds now.


Lost in the Trees (Chapel Hill, NC) = nice fellows


They even came down and played acoustically in the crowd for awhile.


Plants and Animals (Canadian). A little jammy but fun to dance to.


So Thursday was a little stranger. My friend Taylor was having his old college buddy and her boyfriend come visit for awhile and he was getting a bunch of people together to go to the Country Club upon their arrival. The Country Club, mainly a gay establishment, is some kind of private club with bar and clothing optional pool. I didn't show up till about 9:30 so most of the rounded, naked bodies were cloaked in night. Taylor's friends were drunk, jovial, and had many good things to say when I told them I was from Asheville. Shortly after I arrived a very drunk, very fat, very naked Sicilian/French man decided to make friends with all of us. According to him he is related to Marie Antoinette, making him French royalty, and his family is also heavily involved with the mafia. Mostly he was just a rich boy artist, who made some extra cash on the side by selling drugs. He asked everyone if they were interested in making a purchase from his large stock of Valium but there were few takers. The get together ended shortly afterward (so much for my $8 entrance fee) and I decided to go home and have a surrealist movie marathon with Amanda and our housemate Andy.


P.S. Last week the locally loved sketchy convenient store, Vertimart, burned down. Money is currently being raised through shows and other benefits to push it towards a speedy recovery.
Below is a picture of the Vertimart memorial wall, which is located on one of the pieces of plywood covering up its no longer existent windows.


May we have a moment of silence for Vertimart...

Dancin' in the Club

So I don't have any pictures to add to the experience of this post but I'm starting to fall behind and need to catch up on posting before even more exciting things happen.

Saturday: Hung out with Otto for awhile as he was selling art on the street. This guy named Erik also came and joined our conversation for awhile. He was a tall black man and extremely energetic and excited about quitting his prescription Xanax bars; a decision he had made 3 days earlier and had resulted in him having not slept since. After drinking with friends Amanda eventually joined us and we decided to follow Otto and Erik to St. Roch; it was "bounce night." St. Roch is the local bar that has been claimed by krust punk kids. The part of town it resides in is a tad sketchy but on "bounce night" the bar is packed with punk and ghetto kids all trying to do the same thing: get their booty dancin' on. The DJ was great, and though I had not booty danced since 9th grade homecoming, it was a lot of fun. Dancing with friends and strangers a like, we didn't end up leaving until almost 5 in the morning. At some point there were these 2 girls that were dancing in the middle of the floor. Their dancing became more exaggerated until it basically looked like they were trying to have sex right there in front of everyone. I went outside and missed what happened next but apparently it ended with a fight and one of them being thrown out of the bar. St. Roch is a bizarre place.

Last night: Finally got to see my first house show in New Orleans. I excepted it to run on the same time schedule as Raleigh house shows, if not worse, but I was mistaken. When I got there I caught the end of the last band. They were good, but over too soon. So I mingled, talked to friends, and tried to meet new people, despite the fact that I was not feeling that socially adept at the time. I'm glad I got to go though. My friend Takiaya was leaving town directly from the party and I got to say goodbye as she was heading out for the interstate. She said she's going to try and head for Asheville eventually so I'll hopefully see her again. Otto is also leaving tomorrow but is also going to eventually try to head home along a path that takes him through Asheville.

I suppose this is the nature of living in such a transient place. Everyone's on the move all the time and just as soon as you make new friends, they're gone. But here I am playing the same game. Two more weeks now till I'm off for Portland but damn I'm going to miss this place.